Welcome to Gaia! ::

Bell had called up Tal the previous afternoon to ask her if she'd go shopping with her today. I ttook some prying, but Bell had convinced her, and even promised to buy her a nice new outfit! Because, although this was mostly a shopping trip for baking ingredients, what was a shopping trip without some clothes?

Exactly.

And so, there was Bell now, standing on Tallulah's front porch, waiting. Bell hadn't told Tal about Xavier and her little roof top exchange earlier that week. She had a feeling though that she'd either be told, or find out one way or another. It was no secret. No, no secret at all. Just like it wasn't a secret that Bell had been pretty much a full time senshi guard dog, and that she'd confiscated Xavier's pen. After all, she had relayed - rather comically, that trying to henshin up with the wrong pen didn't work.

But anyway. Shopping and friendly bonding. It was, perhaps, a much needed kind of normalcy.

"Hi!" Bell, having never really been around any parents - including her own - was kinda of both scared and sad about the aspect of ever meeting anyone's parents. Though that would be left to another situation entirely.


"I fond an old recipie book in my apartment. I guess the person that lived there before me left it. I kinda just wanted to try my hand at baking, is all!" Bell laughed and they walked to the bus stop. Though truthfully some of the baking was for Xavier. Still, Bell reasoned, There was going to be plenty of baked goods to go around - Tallulah would probably have plenty for herself and Jamie. After all, whenever Bell cooked she seemed to always manage to stretch the recipe somehow... But no one had ever found that to be a bad thing.

"Speaking as someone who has been out in this weather 16 hours a day, patroling, I think I'm actually starting to miss summer already. Though it is better than the rainy spring..." And the sinuses that came with it. But Bell couldn't help but laugh.

Bell blushed a bit and smiled sheepishly. No fooling Tal.

As they got on the bus, Bell answered, "Well, there's a lot of things I found that I want to try and make. Cookies, of course, and there was this cake-batter ice cream recipie! Eclairs, tarts, fried pies~"

Bell found a seat, "Luckily I already have some of the heavier equipment, like the ice cream machine, pans, sugar and flower. Still, I promised you an outfit, didn't I? So maybe we should find that, first!" Because cloths were lighter than cans and boxes. And she really didn't want to take a chance on the eggs, or butter. And Bell really wanted to find some new sweaters.

Okay, even Bell hadn't been expecting that kind of reaction to the fact that she owned a $50 ice cream maker. Bell just blinked for a moment, and then laughed.
"Indeed I do. Hmn, I don't think a couple semesters of home ec classes counts as not really having baking experience," Bell said. Oh, but then again maybe Meadowview didn't have much of a home ec class... "We can start with the cookies."

After all, following the directions is simple enough.

"I know this one store that has some really nice clothes. It looks just like the name brand stuff, but without the ridiculous price." And people for some reason still bought the more expensive stuff? Bell wondered why sometimes. And seriously, even though Bell had money, she wasn't about to pay over $15 for a pair of pants.
...Obviously she'd been hitting Goodwill lately, and discovered the joys of it. HOWEVER, that was not where they were going. No. Not at all. Bell had another place in mind.

Thankfully for Tal, Goodwill wasn't what Bell had in mind, though it was an influence. Bell shook her head, "No, but we will be getting off soon."

Built over the summer was a new section of strip malls that held a variety of stores from Chinese food, to athletics stores, cafes, dollar stores, salons, and rent-to-own furniture stores, and clothing outlets. The place looked ritzy-er than it actually was. Some stores seemed to cater to the older uptown crowd, while others the more middle class, and then finally, the college kids. Or those getting ready for college.

The bus stopped near by, and Bell hopped up, "We're here!"

It was a great place for window-shopping, as the walkways were huge. There was the occasional expanse of parking lot, but it seemed to be a vastly parallel parking kind of place - who knew people still did that now a days? It was obvious this place was built so that even the lower middle class could feel rich.

And a strip mall was CERTAINLY better than old abandoned warehouses! because old abandoned warehouses were just BEGGING to be Youma infested.

Bell took a moment to think which way to go. It seemed they had added an arcade since the last time she'd been here, which kind of threw her off a little. Never the less, soon Bell decided on a direction, "This way!"

They passed several clothing stores, and even a bookstore, But Bell had a particular one in mind. Here we are! The name of the store was somewhat hard to tell, due to the font they'd used (a poor choice on their part) but it made the place memorable, even if it was by "The Place that Can't Be Named."

The store seemed to be divided into half - one side for guys, and the other for girls. They guy's side seemed to at least have been trying to make a suggestion against the current fad of ripped up pants and badly patterned stuff that seemed to be the fad now a days. It might have been a little mid-90's, even.
And for girls, for once something that didn't come looking wrinkled, or like a tiger had gotten a hold of it! Vintage tee's sat on a shelf along the back wall, cheap accessories on a rack near by, casual-wear dresses, cheap jeans, skirts that weren't made to show off everything, and cute shoes.
And the best part was the prices. You'd be hard pressed to find anything that wasn't a shoe, that was over $25.

"Here we are!" Bell opened the door.

Bell really wasn't much of the jeans type, but so long as they didn't look like they'd seen better days, she didn't see anything wrong with them. "I think something lighter might go better with your hair, maybe?" Bell suggested, putting a finger to her chin in though. She had never been a part of the fashion police by any means.

She walked over to a near by rack of casual-wear dresses, and pulled out one that was knee length, high necked, and no sleeves It was dark blue, with a slightly darker still plaid pattern that faded here and there. The skirt part was slightly pleated It was obviously something that had been meant for summer, and was now marked down, but Bell could easily see throwing a sweater over it, and maybe wearing some leggings with it. She was decided on this for herself, but held it up for appraisal, "looks like I should have come by earlier - I'm going to see about a sweater to go with this one."

Bell accepted the compliment graciously, and started thumbing through the sweaters. Sweaters had to be Bell's favorite part of the colder months.

"It's...." Bell pondered, looking up at the ceiling to her mental map, "down past the antique shop, I think. Maybe sandwiched between that and the dollar store." She then looked over to the cardigan and grinned, "Well, maybe they'd let you wear it with the uniform if it matches well enough?"